Shared Post

There is a nice group of us that have been blogging for the past decade.  We have learned from each other, shared in successes, cheered each other on, encouraged each other, silently stalked, and developed friendships.  Over the past couple of years, a majority of us are writing less.  And less.  And less.

I have had so many thoughts on this, and how it applies to me.  I have now been in the sport for a decade.  But you know, (almost) 38 is different from 28.  So much has changed, but then again, I am still the same person and a lot of my goals are the same.  So, many things have not changed as well.

But, I could never really put into a blog post what has been going on.  What is different?  What does racing mean or not mean to me?  Where to go from here?

And this post - of course by Jen Harrison- just nailed it on the head for me.  She always has a good way of putting into words the way that I feel about so many things.

I relate to so much on this post, and I definitely struggle to find where triathlon and sport in general fits into my life now.  It is not a loss of goals or loss of love from the sport, but it is a realization that there are many things going on in my life that deserve my attention.

A few weeks ago I ran with my good and wise friend Billy, and he asked me if the tail was wagging the dog.  I thought...no, I am in control of this.  But really, he sensed that I was not, and he mentioned it several times to me throughout the course of our run.  He asked me how long I have been doing this, and I said 10 years.  But really, he said, I have been doing this for 30 years.  30 years of sports, with about 23 or so being pretty dern competitive and mentally and physically dogging myself out to be the best athlete I could be.

So, I have lately been asking myself.  Is the tail wagging the dog?

And to give you an example of how triathlon has fit into my life since becoming a mom, I have been riding on a broken aero bar pad for 2 years.  2.  2!  Never got it fixed.  Never bothered to deal with the discomfort.  Wednesday I located an extra pad (which was rusted through...another sign of my neglect) and switched it out.  It took 10 minutes.  10 minutes in the span of 2 years.  Now, THAT said something to me.  (but really, isn't the aero pad just a different version of the broken rear brake that I raced on?  Or the nerve issues in my foot that I never addressed?  Different symptom of the same issue.)

With that, I am signing off.  Read Jen's post.  It is good stuff.